Who We Are

An independent organization of leading scientists and journalists researching and reporting the facts about our changing climate and its impact on the public.

What We Do

Climate Central surveys and conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public of key findings. Our scientists publish and our journalists report on climate science, energy, sea level rise. Read More

About Our Expertise

Members of the Climate Central staff and board are among the most respected leaders in climate science. Staff members are authorities in communicating climate and weather links, sea level rise, climate. Read More

Sea Level Rise

Our flagship sea level project, two years in the making, allows you to search or navigate interactive mapsto see areas below different amounts of sea level rise and flooding — down to neighborhood scale — matched with area timelines of risk. The tool also provides statistics of population, homes and land affected by city, county and state, plus links to reports, fact sheets, action plans, embeddable widgets and more.

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Sea Level 101

Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. A Climate Central analysis finds that sea level rise from warming has already doubled the odds of "century" or worse floods over widespread areas of the U.S., and the problem is growing by the decade.These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed. And compounding this risk, scientists expect roughly 2 to 5 more feet of sea level rise this century — a lot depending upon how much more heat-trapping pollution humanity puts into the sky.

The new map incorporates the latest, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar elevation data supplied by NOAA, displays points of interest, and contains layers displaying social vulnerability and population density. It provides the ability to search by location name or zip code.

Climate Central will launch the web tool for all U.S. coastal states on a state-by-state basis, starting in 2014.

The Risk Finder incorporates the latest, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar elevation data supplied by NOAA and assesses exposure of over 100 infrastructure and other elements — from airports to road miles, from schools to hospitals to wastewater treatment plants — in order to allow users to explore vulnerability from zip code through city, county and state levels. It provides the ability to compare risk across areas, as well as the ability to analyze the likelihood of coastal flood and sea level threats occurring in the future by decade.